Barriers to Change: Why Is It So Difficult for People to Change?

Change is closely associated with uncertainty for everyone in an organisation. Uncertainty creates anxiety, doubt, worry, ambiguity, and discomfort. Change is like a journey, particularly when there is no clear roadmap that everyone in the organisation can see. Fundamentally, people find it difficult to accept change or uncertainty. There are at least four reasons why people become barriers to change or find it difficult to embrace change. These reasons correspond to the four dominant thinking capabilities that people may possess within an organisation.

Thinker: Rationality Leads Change

A Thinker who is highly rational always questions whether a change will make them appear less intelligent, less capable, or leave them in a worse position than before. Their rationality enables Thinkers to resist change through various logical arguments. They may engage in one logical debate after another to challenge the change. Their ability to think in a detailed, precise, and structured way can make them a formidable opponent when a leader asks them to change.

Thinkers are indeed among the most difficult people to persuade when a change does not appear rational to them. Leaders therefore need a high level of knowledge and experience to encourage Thinkers to change. They must provide logical arguments supported by rigorous analysis. Leaders need to demonstrate facts, data, and evidence that can be accepted rationally. Leaders should use reasonable persuasion to urge Thinkers to change. However, when reasonable persuasion reaches a dead end, leaders may resort to coercive persuasion through the formulation of plans, rules, and procedures that compel people to change.

Challenger: Politics Leads Change

A Challenger who is driven by achievement, honour, power, and perhaps even ‘wealth’ will always ask whether a change will enable them to achieve more, become more respected, gain greater power, and perhaps, once again, become wealthier. If not, the Challenger may resist the change fiercely. Their arguments may not always be entirely logical, but their resistance can take the form of various manoeuvres, tactics, and political behaviour capable of disrupting or even preventing change.

Leaders therefore need to be highly skilled in political behaviour when dealing with Challengers. They need their own range of tactics and manoeuvres to encourage people to change. Without strong political skills, leaders may find it difficult to persuade a Challenger to embrace change. Politics is about interests. It represents the benefits that a Challenger expects to gain from change. Leaders therefore need to use beneficial persuasion to encourage Challengers to change.

Lover: Love Leads Change

A Lover is different. Lovers prioritise feelings, emotional connections, empathy, friendship, and togetherness. A Lover will question a change when it appears likely to damage friendships, traditions, warm memories of the past, or a sense of togetherness. They may resist change by emphasising who they were in the past, how much they have contributed, served, or sacrificed for the organisation, or by using ethics and morality as a shield against change. A Lover may try to convince everyone that they are part of one big family that must remain united in resisting the change. ‘This change will damage our family,’ they might say.

Leaders therefore need to position themselves as part of the wider family of those they are asking to change. They need to demonstrate that they genuinely care about this family. They need to empathise with it. Most importantly, they need to convince people that the change is precisely what will save the family. It is the leader's love and concern for this family that leads the change. Does love provide the foundation for people to act ethically, or does ethics provide the foundation for love? Which one is right? What is clear is that leaders need to use ethical persuasion to encourage Lovers to change.

Dreamer: Freedom Leads Change

When dealing with a Dreamer, you are dealing with someone full of imagination, creativity, ideas, and different perspectives. Dreamers will generally support changes that give them greater freedom to express themselves, create, generate ideas, and bring different perspectives into the organisation. Fundamentally, Dreamers like change, but they like change that supports their freedom. A Dreamer will resist change when that change restricts or confines them.

Their ability to continually generate new ideas and perspectives can make it challenging for leaders to persuade them to follow a particular direction of change. Leaders therefore need to create a compelling vision of a new future. They must be able to illustrate what the organisation will look like in the future. Leaders need to explain convincingly that the change will provide people with new experiences, enable them to develop new ideas, and encourage greater tolerance towards different perspectives. Leaders must also be able to convince Dreamers that the proposed change is original, something that other organisations have not yet done. Reasonable persuasion also plays a role when leaders encourage Dreamers to change. The difference is that while Thinkers respond to rational reasonable persuasion, Dreamers respond to imaginative reasonable persuasion.

Leading Change Requires a Whole Mindset

These are the four reasons why people may be reluctant to change. Leaders need to understand the mindsets of all four types of people. They need to know how to encourage Thinkers, Challengers, Lovers, and Dreamers to embrace change. A change leader therefore needs a Whole Mindset.

Start by mapping the people you are asking to change. Understanding how they think will determine the extent to which they support the change you are leading.